Nobody really cares about polls or story reasons for stopping a show mid-ep. if they don't like it they'll just stop watching.

This is true for the viewers, but, my point wasn't that they'll look at the ratings or polls and decide they should watch anyways. The point was, since the ratings are improving on BBCA, and staying steady on BBC, despite a dwindling overall available audience due to so many viewing options, it obviously doesn't matter, since more new people are staying, then leaving, and the original base isn't eroding.

DWF wrote:

As for the ratings picture, the show overall is getting about the same ratings it got during Colin Baker's first season, make of that what you will. And while the premiere ep. set a ratings record for BBCA, I haven't seen figures for an entire season yet. Still the BBC Wales seem to need BBCA now, for all the talk of good ratings I have to wonder what would happen once that support falls away.

Well, then, since Doctor Who is the highest rated scripted Drama, that proves my point about the smaller available audience, you can't fault a show for not getting 15-20 million viewers, if the viewers aren't available. Back then, it used to be easy for a popular show in America to pull in 30 million, it's now tough for the most popular shows to get over 10 million.

You had this same Doom and Gloom line last year, and you saw a whole season of ratings for last year for BBCA, and they've grown. You can't judge ratings numbers, side by side today versus 26 years ago. What would've gotten you cancelled Mid Season 1 back then, is good ratings now, especially for a smaller channel like BBCA, 8 million is very respectable on Network now, on BBCA, it's a flagship program, and on BBC it's generally the Highest Rated Scripted Drama, so it doesn't matter if that's 1 million viewers or 20 million, it's the best anyone is getting, there is no more to get and no shame in not getting more

When I say I've never seen a full season's of ratings from BBCA that's what I mean. And the overnight ratigns for Dinosaurs On A Spaceship was a mere 5.5, a two million drop on BBC One from the premiere. both Torchwood and Sherlock were getting higher ratings.

But this isn't about ratings and I didn't bring ratings into it, it's about whether or not newbies feel the show is too complicated and we as older fans as I've already said really can't be judges of what the newbies feel about the show.

__________________
The greatest science fiction series of all time is
Doctor Who! And I'll take you all on, one-by-one
or all in a bunch to back it up!"
--- Harlan Ellison, from his introduction
to the PINNACLE series of Doctor Who books